Greetings, fellow appreciator of the visual part of level design!
Ahem, I mean, yo. Sup.
I'd like to offer a bit of critique.
Nice screens you got there, but I have to say they kinda suffer from the "
Generic Good Design Syndrome"
That's totally a scientific term and I totally did not just make it up myself, I swear!
What I mean by that is that five of your screens (out of
six you've posted) share the same exact design style with very little difference. And what I mean by
that is that they share a lot of common elements both in design and literally. To be more precise: "
natural"
looking rough walls, randomly scattered rubble/trees, puddles of water, lighting effects, darkness.
I'm afraid that's not exactly "
sundry"
.
Do not, under any circumstance be discouraged by what I just said though. I called it "
Generic
Good Design Syndrome"
for a reason (how do I put more emphasis on the word "
good"
?). The problem is not that you're a bad designer, no, in fact, it's quite opposite, you're good and you should keep practicing, you'll only improve and get even better! The problem is that your rooms look "
generic"
. I assume you got really good at one style of architecture (natural looking, in this instance) and naturally that's what you want to stick to, since you're good at it. I know that, because I kinda went through that phase myself and I've seen a lot of artists do the same. What you should do instead is practise other design styles and try to experiment and deviate more. Try to make your levels look more unique, try adding some kinda gimmick that makes the level memorable, try limiting yourself in some way. I used to think that phrase "
limitations breed imagination"
is stupid and that you should always use the full potential of the tools you use/things that game offers you, but it turned out true.
For example, try making a whole level without using darkness and lights
at all. That way you'll be forced to think how to make the level look better and more interesting without using fancy lightning effects. And
also that will add a unique feeling to the level, as in, it's one of the levels that doesn't use lighning (But that's not really a very unique or interesting thing). I can say that your icy screenshot would look very good even without the lightning.
Also, it would probably be easier to find some good ideas if you look at something for inspiration. Like other DROD rooms. Find some room that you think looks good and try to imitate its design style. Stare at the room you like for a few minutes or hours (yo, art is hard, okay?) as necessary, and ask yourself,
what do you like about that room. Can you do something similar? Then do it! Does it look good to you? Yes? No? Doesn't matter! Keep practicing, and you'll get better and better, there's no limit to how good you can be, I can assure you. Learning by imitation is probably the easiest way to get better. Doesn't matter if you good at it or bad, that way you have a very clear objective in mind and you improve your own style without even realising it.
And please don't take anything I said as an order that you have to do right now. No, that's just some advice I give as someone who went through the process of learning level design himself and wants to show a way for people who are interested in it. And that's not the only way, in fact you can just ignore everything I said and do everything your own way, and eventually you will get better sooner or later (mad rhyme, yo). Level design is art (no matter how much I hate that word), there's no single correct way to do it. You can consider everything I wrote as just an example of what you can do. See for yourself what you want to do, maybe you'll find at least something that's useful for you.
Now for some random protips that I couldn't shoehorn into the wall of text above.
- Don't try to force yourself to make levels when you're not really feeling it. Unless you're really good your levels will probably look ugly even to yourself.
- Sometimes the puzzles are what make the room look good. No, that's not a metaphor or anything. I mean, literally, sometimes I just make a puzzle, look at it and say:
DAYUM, that looks
GOOD
- There was something else I wanted to write, too bad I forgot it already. And my coffee is now cold.
Finally, to show that I'm not just spouting nonsense out of my mouth, here's a few screens of rooms I made:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qv2k88c1cvmgx63/AAB9ln4kKCnBT1VSqnqkaSG2a
Also, a cool thing I forgot to say: when you get better at making levels for DROD, you also get better at making levels for other games as well, because you get better at level design in general. And you even get better at visual design in general. I can say that most of my level design experience actually comes from making levels for Doom. I guess I can even show some disastrously horrifyingly hilarious screens of my maps as I progressed from bad to good if anyone's interested.
EDIT: Oh, also important thing I forgot to say. Your icy screenshot actually looks
really good. Try to make some more stuff like it.
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[Last edited by DezzTech at 02-04-2015 01:28 PM]
. Design equals to puzzles. A hold must not to be just a couple of puzzles... It's boring to play this. But hold with incredible design is more valuable.
